NAMA said it was "inviting proposals from interested parties to acquire a long leasehold interest" in a 2.35-hectare site on the northside of the river Liffey beside the half-built former headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank. That site is now owned by the Central Bank.

Unusually, the site will be offloaded through the public tender process. That means the state bad bank has not retained an agent to sell the property and no asking price has been released.

However, given the size and location of the property, the final sale price is likely to run to several million euro.

The site will be officially listed on the government-run e-Tenders website this morning.

Surprisingly, only the leasehold is being offered for sale.

This means that the buyer will have the right to develop, manage and realise the site, but NAMA will retain the freehold interest, and will continue to draw ground rent on the property.

Freeholds are normally retained only by landlords who expect to remain in control of a property for a long time.

NAMA, however, is scheduled to be wound down by 2020, and maybe even before that. Given the surging commercial property prices in Dublin and in the docklands in particular, though, the agency is likely to sell at a later date.

NAMA chief executive Brendan McDonagh said the move was "good news".

"It will introduce new investment into the area and open the door for further development in neighbouring sites."